Since we returned from Essen with Hermagor in our pockets, we have been anxiously awaiting playing it with Harm and Marc, of which we figured that they would really like it.

So we set up the board (not too much of an effort, which is nice), we explained the rules (with the rulebook, in the Mind the Move version it comes in 3 languages, including English AND Dutch - nice!) and found some things that we did wrong in Essen, and we set up.

First we put the buyers in the market. Not too much problems here, since Harm and Marc had not a good grip yet about how and what, why you want a specific tile, or how you could make sure that it was your tile. Then we set out from Hermagor (most of us in different directions) after some debate wether it was good to be the first or the last player of a round. We had 5 actions the first round, and Ageeth almost enclosed an area. She deceided not to, since the marker of the dragons eggs was not yet advanced enough (the marker should uncover the green zero before you are allowed to take that production building) to be allowed to put the marker there. The next round she did not get any eggs, and in the end she could not secure that area and production building.

The next round was much more tense, and there was a lot of analysis paralysis. I don't like that at all. I think people should play faster, so I go cleaning out the dishwashes and serving drinks and stuff, and still then I cannot place my marker. Maybe if we/they know the game better, placing the buyers will give less analysis paralysis (we were also laughing about it, since Mark and Harm taught Ligretto to some of their friends, and they completely went into analysis paralysis, and they only played like 5 cards each round, so it was not a lot of fun). It was still fun. Harm took the lead in the second round and placed a marker in the nobles section and in the production buildings, and he got a lot of money.

In the end, he confidently won the game. He got 6 different production buildings, and the 'longest road' (together with me), and he had 6 houses in each region - very smart (I had 3 in 1 area, and Ageeth 2 - so not too much money for us there!). Marc was trailing behind, paralyzed by all the choices he had to make.

Harm 132Ann 112Ageeth 111Marc 82

But the verdict was definitely positive, this one is a keeper, and will hit our table a lot more! And they liked it a lot too.

She deceided not to, since the marker of the dragons eggs was not yet advanced enough (the marker should uncover the green zero before you are allowed to take that production building) to be allowed to put the marker there.

Is this a rule I have missed ? I thought you could put a production marker down anytime there is space , and better earlier on as you get the higher cash bonus for that type...

production markers can be placed in every available space with green numbers. A the beginnings there are only 2 place available: 5, 3. This means you can't put your disc on the "1" and "0" square and only 2 production buildings can be placed until someone raises the price of the specific product.

Yes thats what Im saying , and as the person in the session would have been the first to score a region , the optimal 5 and 3 space would have been available , therefore I believe the author was playing incorrectly.